2013 is to be a stellar year for rugby league according to many within the game. We have the first major sporting event after the Olympics to be held in the UK in the Rugby League World Cup, with an expanded tournament from 08, big ambitious venues, pre sales going well and renewed hope that England will go well, the eyes of the nation should be on ‘The Greatest Game’ come autumn. Before that though we have the domestic game to come, with this promises to be one of the best yet.

In Championship One we have the introduction of 3 new teams, making this division the most nationally diverse league ever in the game, from Gateshead to Gloucester to Wrexham to Hemel and many more places along the way, nicknamed the league of death by some, to me it’s more like the league of new opportunity. The Championship has now been expanded to a 14 team league with top 8 play offs to mirror the Super League. This division contains some of the sport’s most famous clubs and again promises to be a very tough league with it becoming ever more difficult to pick the winner in any one game. The Super League in 2013 (I know this is said every year) is I believe going to be the best season to date. Yes you can probably still call who will be towards the top, but in which order no one knows, I also believe the battle for 7th to the wooden spoon is too difficult to call. Salford are probably favourites to prop up the table but with the good Drs Takeover now at the helm I believe they will be a lot stronger than many thought. Warrington are tipped to finally win the big one this year, but reigning champions Leeds any others such as Wigan, Saints, a big spending Hull and a few more will have something to say about it. We also have the Northern Rail Cup and the newly sponsored Tetley’s Challenge Cup to come as well, to name the winner in anyone of these, be it league or cup is very very difficult and to me this is the sign of a good competition.

Now to the biggest draw in rugby league, the Yorkshire men’s league. It’s been a year since the majority of the amateur game switched to summer; there was a few teething problems, as was to be expected in the first year, fingers crossed that these will be ironed out for the forthcoming season. Early signs look good with the new league structure, which includes a 10 team premier and 2 leagues of 8 below that, and to underpin all that an entry league bursting with teams. Hopefully for us there won’t be the problems of teams not fulfilling fixtures against us this year and a bit more settled and levelled out standard.

York Lokomotive will sit in Group 2 which includes York & North Yorkshire derby games against Heworth & Scarborough Pirates respectively, as well as some trips to Hull & West Yorkshire. The Lokos have a hectic pre-season schedule booked with trial games against the fore mentioned local rivals and also a cross code game against partner club York RI RUFC. The season starts proper on 30th March when we meet another local rival York Acorn in the York & District Cup, to be played at our New Lane ground. With a new committee and a new coach, former player John Hough installed, and plenty of enthusiasm from the players this season is not only going to be a stellar year for the rugby league but for York Lokomotive too. Full steam ahead to choo thousand and 13.